Kyiv says Ukrainian reporter Victoria Roshchyna died in Russian detention

The award-winning freelance journalist was known for her reporting on life in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

An award-winning Ukrainian journalist who wrote firsthand accounts of life in Russian-occupied Ukraine has died in detention in Russia.

Victoria Roshchyna, who was 27, worked freelance for Ukrainian media outlets Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske Radio, as well as for US-funded Radio Liberty.

She went missing in August last year after she travelled to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine on a reporting trip.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence acknowledged in a letter to her father in May that she was in Russian custody.

“Unfortunately, information about Victoria’s death has been confirmed,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s prisoners of war coordination headquarters, told Ukrainian television.

He said investigations were continuing into how she died.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement that Russia informed Roshchyna’s family on Thursday that she had died on September 19.

“The Russian authorities have never provided any information about her detention, despite repeated requests from her family, the Ukrainian authorities, and RSF,” Jeanne Cavalier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement. “They must shed light on all the circumstances surrounding her detention and death.”

A terrible tragic news: Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was kidnapped in the occupied territories of Ukraine, has died in a Russian prison. It has happened on September 19th, but her father received the news only today. She was on hunger strike for many days, many… pic.twitter.com/FHXc5rii2m

— Anastasia Magazova 🌻 (@a_magazova) October 10, 2024

Roshchyna wrote vivid accounts of life in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as well as in areas of eastern Ukraine seized by Russian-funded separatists.

She also documented the nearly three-month defence of the port of Mariupol after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

She was initially detained by the Russians for 10 days, shortly after the country embarked on its war.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s HUR Intelligence Directorate, Andriy Yusov, told public broadcaster Suspilne that Roshchyna had been on a proposed prisoner exchange and was due to be transferred to Moscow from detention in Taganrog near the Ukrainian border.

Ukraine said in May more than two dozen Ukrainian media workers were being held in Russian captivity and that negotiations for their return were under way.

RSF said Roshchyna was the 13th journalist to die as a result of their work since the Russian invasion.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies